


It's All In Your Head

by Silvery_Moon_Thing



Series: The Flux Chronicles [2]
Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Attempted Murder, F/M, Mental Illness, Strangling/Suffocation, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-24
Updated: 2016-08-27
Packaged: 2018-07-26 04:12:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7559614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvery_Moon_Thing/pseuds/Silvery_Moon_Thing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Here it is, folks! The next part of the story, the one that will probably raise more questions than it answers!</p>
    </blockquote>





	1. Strange Faces, Familiar Voices

**Author's Note:**

> Here it is, folks! The next part of the story, the one that will probably raise more questions than it answers!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lalnable has a moment, and Hat Corp and the Flux Buddies finally meet face-to-face!

As far as Lalnable could tell, he was getting better. The flashes were becoming less and less often, though they were getting stranger. One time, he saw his sister kneeling over him, crying. She was horribly beaten, and looked to be in awful condition. They were in a large white, padded room, and somehow it felt... familiar. He knew he hadn't seen it before, but something about it just seemed familiar. He waited until the flash was over, and everything went back to normal. Specimen Five was still working on improving the blood altar, and had almost finished the setup for the ritual. Everything was just as it was, but he still looked around in amazement. This... this was his life. Seven years ago his family abandoned him, and this is where it led him. Performing blood magic with a slave he beat into submission. He suddenly felt light-headed and dizzy. Stumbling over to his bed, he sat down. His head was spinning. Was this really what his life had become? What was his fleeting illness, the flashes? What did they mean? Why were they there?  
When did his life go so wrong?

 

~~~~~

 

Kim was pacing, trying to decide how to deal with Hat Corp. "What if we nuke them to all hell? That should teach them a lesson."  
Duncan was sitting in a chair in front of her, slightly frustrated with all of her violent answers. "How about we just become friends? Partners in crime?"  
Kim shook her head. "Then I won't be able to blow up the sign! What fun is that?"  
He shook his head. "Are all of yours ideas going to involve blowing up the sign?"  
She looked at him with a quizzical expression. "Well, yeah. Yours don't?"  
He sighed. "I think we might need to have a talk about reasonable actions." He looked up at her, all of his features screaming out 'tired'. "They're our /neighbors/. Could you at least /pretend/ to have a little respect?"  
Her head snapped up to stare at him, a fire deep down in her soul suddenly ignited. "What did you just say?"  
He leaned back against the chair, repeating, "I said you should pretend you care about the neighbors. What of it?"  
She stormed up to him, towering over him and casting an eerie effect with the lights, blocking them out directly. "What is that supposed to mean?" She was talking through gritted teeth.  
Duncan suddenly leaned forward, placing his hands on her shoulders and looking straight into her eyes. "Look, Kim, all I was trying to say was that maybe you shouldn't be so keen on exploding the sign when you don't know anything about them, OK?"  
He saw her struggle to contain her anger, then say, "Fine."  
There was an awkward silence before he took his hands off of her shoulders and said, "Let's get to know them first, shall we."  
Kim inhaled deeply before responding, "Sounds lovely. Shall we head over now?"  
"Of course." They set off to Hat Corp. Something was slipping between them and slowly drifting them apart, and they both knew it and saw, but didn't acknowledge it. They thought if they just ignored it, it would go away.  
How very wrong they were.

 

~~~~~

 

Meanwhile at Hat Corp, Ross, Smith, and Trott were working on figuring out what to do with these 'Flux Buddies'. "Might I remind you we haven't even seen their faces? What the hell are we supposed to do with just their first names? We can't do shit!" Ross was doubtful that they could do anything without knowing even their radio number, which they seemed pretty set on protecting.  
"We could just blow every house this side of the book to smithereens. That would probably get them." Trott looked like he just suggested they bake a cake, not nuke the entire world.  
"No, that's too classy for those fuckers. Hiding their radio number," Smiffy mumbled as he rubbed his chin, as though that would give him the answer.  
Just then, their doorbell rang. "Who the hell could be out there at this hour!?" Ross was getting up to answer the door when Trott retorted.  
"Well, to be fair mate, it's 9AM. I think a lot of people could be at the door at this hour."  
"Shut up!" He brushed off his suit, then opened the door. A short woman with red hair and a tall man with messy blond locks stood in front of him. "Hello, welcome to Hat Corp, where what's yours is ours! Can we offer you in a deed, or maybe a book? I recommend 'The Lusty Walrus'. It's quite a nice read."  
The tall blonde spoke up first. "Actually, we just want to talk."  
Smiffy stared wide-eyed at the strangers on their doorstep before saying, "Holy shit, mate! They're the Fuck Buddies! The spies!"  
Kim invited herself in. "And you must be Smiffy. Nice to meet you too." She had an obviously fake smile plastered onto her face, and held out her hand for him to shake. When he refused, she added, "Thanks for inviting us, Mr. Nice Guy."  
Duncan, trying to actually make friends with them, walked over to Trott. "And are you Trott then? I see my associate had already met Smiffy, and we've both seen Ross now."  
Trott crossed his arms and eyed Duncan suspiciously. "How do you know our names?"  
Duncan suddenly turned a shade of red Trott had never seen before, then said, "It-it doesn't matter."  
Still not satisfied, the walrus asked, "Oh? But doesn't it?"  
He once again turned even redder, turning a color Trott knew for certain now wasn't natural. "C-can we change the subject?"  
Trott was having too much fun. "No, I'd really like to know. How do you know our names?"  
Now Kim stepped between them, threatening, "He said he doesn't want to talk about it. Drop it."  
His flow wasn't stopped there. "Actually, I think this information is rather important. Do tell, how do you know our names?"  
She stared through him, a sudden intimidating aura surrounding her. "Fuck. Off." She grabbed the collar of his lab coat, showing no emotion other than threat, if that was even an emotion. He nodded frantically and she let him go. She casually slipped her hand into Duncan's and said, "So Dunc, do'ya think we've made a good impression?"  
He noticed her hand, and raised her, literally, scooping her up and cradling her while she giggled. "Yeah, I'd say we've done enough damage here for now. Let's go home." He walked towards the door, then, before he left, looked around and said, "Farewell, boys, see you around later!" Then he walked out and started back home, Kim still in his arms.


	2. Flashback

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lalnable has a flashback, and Kim risks her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One Green Day YouTube Mix later, I bring you Chapter 2!
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> The mist is clearing...

Lalnable was dizzy. He had to sit down. Everything was spinning as he gripped his chair for dear life and sat down. Looking around, everything had a sudden dream-like quality to it. What was wrong with him? Nobody loved him. He had an illness. Nothing was right. Nobody loved him.  
Nobody loved him.  
The words echoed through his brain, hurting with each wave of repetition, pain crashing through him. His ears were ringing now. What was wrong with him? Why was he so lonely? Reality was merging with a dream now, Specimen Five blending with Nano and the entire cave merging into an old wooden hut. He needed help. He needed Nano; no, Five, he had created her, hadn't he? No, he didn't need anyone, none of them loved him! None of them cared! Right?  
...right?  
Nano-no, Five- looked over and saw him. He heard Five, yelling to him, "Boss!" She ran over in sync with Nano, now indiscernible. He couldn't tell who she was anymore. She lifted him up, and he looked up to her face. He saw one half, covered in flux, the face of Five, scarred, beaten, and bruised, but somehow... with love. The other side of her face was Nano, the exact same, but... different. But she was filled with love, too. What was wrong with them? How could they ever love someone as awful as him? As he stared at her, everything went dark.  
But right before he slipped into unconsciousness, right before he found that beautiful nirvana which would have kept him warm and safe forever, he heard Five, but he heard someone else yell someone different, something he had heard before.  
He heard Nano yelling, "Lal!"

▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Flashback~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
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/"Lal, I'm telling you, there's nothing in your closet! Don't you trust me?" Lalnable was young, maybe only 5, and Nano was trying to tell him there wasn't a monster in his closet. He shook his head. "Do you need me to open your closet for you?"/  
/"I'm telling you, there's a monster in there! If you open the door, it'll come out and eat you! I trapped it in there, but if you open it, we're all dead!"/  
/"Lal, you're insane." She opened the closet door and Tiddles ran out, sprinting across the room and out the door. "You trapped /Tiddles/ in your /closet/? Are you insane? What were you thinking!?"/  
/"Nano, don't you realize what you've done? We're all dead! You let the monster out!"/  
/Nano rolled her eyes and went for the doors. "Lalnable, if you don't stop this stuff now, it's going to get you later." She walked out and closed the door, leaving him alone in the pitch black./  
/"B-but Nano... Tiddles wasn't the monster..." A pair of glowing red eyes opened in front of him./  
/A deep, rich voice started speaking to him. "Well well well, what have we here? Tried to trap me, did you? I think you'll need an extra punishment for that. Scream and it's double."/

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Flashback End~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
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When Lalnable woke up, he was in a bed in that same wooden hut he had seen before. Looking to his side, he saw that Nano was cooking something, and when she saw that he was awake, she walked over to him with something in her hand. "Here, Lalna," she said as she took a spoon out of the bowl she was holding and fed it to him. "Eat this. It'll help numb the pain." He ate it willingly, even though he didn't want to accept help from someone else who hated him. He was having another flash, but this felt more real than reality. Maybe he couldn't feel dreamy in a dream. Yeah, that was it.  
"W-what happened?" He was so tired he could barely speak, and even then it all sounded mumbled and weak.  
"You passed out. You were out cold, too. 5 whole days."  
"What?"  
"I said you were passed out for five days. By the way, who am I?"  
The question shocked him. "N-Nano. That's a dumb question. You know who you are."  
But her eyes widened anyways. "Y-you see me? The real me? Hold on, I need to get something." She walked off, and Lalnable felt the sudden tug of reality trying to pull him back. He let it. The sooner he got back, the better.  
When he was in his cave again, he saw that Five was staring at him. He stared back at her, cold and heartless, his heart turning to stone again. She quickly looked away and said, "Oh. Sorry Boss, it's just... you were saying weird things..."  
He just stared at her and said, "Get back to work."  
Happy to have the distraction, she said, "Of course, Boss!" and ran off to work on whatever he had last assigned her to do.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Meanwhile...~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
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Kim looked through the computer, trying to find some diamonds. When she found them, she pressed the button and watched as they were printed out automatically. "Still amazes me, even after all these years." She grabbed the diamonds and headed out, ready to take on the enormous task in front of her.  
On her way out, she ran into Duncan, who had been looking through their old things to see if there was any gold. "Hey, Kim. Are you sure you're up for this? It's going to be pretty dangerous. If you fail, you're going to die."  
She nodded. "I'm sure. If this is what it takes, then let it at me, I'm not going to let the possibility of death hold me back."  
"Hey, uh, one more thing."  
"What is it?"  
"It's... it's Lalna and Nano's birthday today."  
"Oh."  
"Do... do you still want to do this? We could always postpone until tomorrow, or-"  
Her expression resolved. "No. If I'm going to die on my kids' birthdays, then let me die on my kids' birthdays." She inhaled deeply. "I'm ready. Let's do this."  
They walked over to a tree, where Duncan held back, but Kim kept going. "Good luck, Kim. And- please. Don't die! For me..." He added the last part silently so that she couldn't hear him.  
Kim stood in front of a crafting table, and started organizing everything she would need. She put her diamonds and gold up near the top, and her dyes right beneath them. Breathing in, she placed the Division Sigil on the table. "15 seconds... that's enough time, right? Right." Ignoring her second thoughts, she pulled out the gold and diamonds. "Here goes nothing." She placed them down, then quickly took the unstable ingots that followed. She laid them down on the table, then inserted the dyes in between them like the recipe said. "And here comes the test of faith..." The ingots started flashing brightly, and Kim shielded her face in case she did it wrong and it was about to explode. When she didn't hear anything, she cautiously looked down and saw that the ingots had stabilized and formed into a pair of demon wings, absorbing the dyes in the process. She held them up for Duncan to see, and heard him cheer. Putting them on, she flew back over to him.  
"Duncan, Duncan it worked! I'm not dead!"  
"I saw! How do they feel? Do they fit? Are they comfortable?"  
"I can't really feel them, they just feel natural." She saw him looking at them, and took his hands, looked him straight in the eye and said, "Duncan Jones, promise me you won't' /ever/ do /anything/ that stupid. Do you hear me? /Ever./"  
"I wasn't thinking about it!" He sighed when she looked at him with her hands on her hips. "I promise."  
She let her hands fall back down. "Good." She saw him looking at her wings and added, "Would you like to go for a ride?"  
He smiled. "I'd love to." She grabbed him under his arms and flew off, strained as she was.

They were still ignoring how much they were slipping, changing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please tell me any theories you have. I'm interested to see if anyone is close to getting it, or if I've been far too obvious and straight-forward!


	3. Six Years Passed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Six years have passed, and things have changed...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this is short, but I didn't feel like writing the flashback yet because  
> A) I'm too lazy, and  
> B) I want this book to have some actual text in it, instead of just one big reveal and a bit cliff hanger(though I do have both of those planned)
> 
> Enjoy it anyways!

Six years passed. The Flux Buddies and Hat Corp became friends, "Partners in crime," as Alsmiffy liked to call them.  
A lot can change in six years. Lalnable was sure his condition was either gone or dormant, because he stopped having flashes. He spent all six years in his cave, working on blood magic. Six long, lonely winters, six harsh, hot summers, all spent to bleed over an altar. He had to have a class with Nano at one point, but she had behaved herself since.  
One day while he was waiting for his wounds to close so that he could bleed himself again, Five walked up to him hesitantly. "Um... Boss? I think we should move."  
"Oh? Why is that?" He was suddenly distracted from his blood magic.  
"Well... you know how you're experimenting with blood magic?" She was avoiding eye contact.  
"Yes?" He was getting slightly frustrated now.  
"And... y'know how you made that Abomination?"  
"Yes?" He felt his blood boiling under his skin.  
"Well... one of the experiments escaped and kinda started eating everything..." Now she looked up to make eye contact, her face filled with guilt and fear.  
"You mean they're eating everything? Multiplying everywhere?"  
"Yeah, exactly..."  
He stood up. "Collapse the altar and take down the trophy wall. Those are the only things we're taking with us."  
"Yes Boss!" She quickly got to work on the altar. While she worked, Lalnable walked up to the exit and looked outside. Sure enough, all he could see was covered in Abomination eggs. A few that had hatched were walking around, surveying the area for any possible animals to kill and use to lay more eggs. When he returned down, Five had finished taking the Altar apart and was finishing up on the skins. "Oh, hey Boss! Bad up there, isn't it?"  
"Yes, it's awful! Are you almost done?"  
"Yeah, I'm just finishing up with the trophies. Here, I- I made you some food. For when we're on the road." She tossed him a back pack and turned a bright shade of red. If he didn't know better, he would've guessed that she liked him. But he knew better, and he knew that she hated him just like the rest of them.  
"Actually, we won't be on the road, Five, because I built THESE!" He pulled out two folded-up hang gliders from his back pocket. "We'll be high above the road! None of those Abominations will be able to lay a finger on us!"  
"Oh..." She suddenly looked very embarrassed. "Should we head out then, Boss?"  
"Yes, of course!" They walked out to the exit, side-by-side.

~~~~~Meanwhile~~~~~

Even though in general the Hats and the Flux Buddies were getting closer, individually they were slipping apart. Duncan normally buried himself with work in his machinery so that he wouldn't have to deal with Kim, who was taking on a lot more Witchery in order to avoid Duncan. The Hats weren't much better, Trott becoming completely absorbed with his Force Tools so that he wouldn't have to see Smiffy, who was busy with Ars Magicka 2, or Ross, who had made himself a room so thoroughly guarded that they barely even saw him anymore. When they met together though, both teams pretended like nothing was wrong, and therefore believed it was just them with this problem, thus making it even worse. They never thought that anything could be wrong with them, that something could possibly be doing this to them, just thought that they hated each other. The truth was so much more sinister.


	4. And Mistakes Were Made

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mistakes are made in the New World...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heh heh... Sorry this is so very late... I've been working on other things *cough cough Another story cough cough*
> 
> Sorry, I appear to have a bit of a cold.

~~~~~6 years ago~~~~~  
Kim and Duncan were both drunk beyond the point of remembering anything they were doing, let alone making good judgement calls. Kim was saying something; Duncan couldn't really tell what her point was. Something about their eternal love and how they could never be separated. To be fair, Duncan was pretty messed up too, and if he had tried to make a point, he probably wouldn't do too well either.  
"Duncan, I'm telling you, we're so much /better/ than those Top Hats. They wouldn't stand a /chance/ against us. Look, if I just cursed us both-"  
"Kim, what are you thinking? You can't curse us! Then we'd be, like, cursed!"  
"Shut up. If I curse us all with a Curse of Separation, and we aren't affected, we could /totally/ rub it in their faces! Then we can, like, nuke them and they won't be able to do a thing! Ha! Ha ha!"  
"Kim, what if we don't stay together?"  
"Then I'll just undo the curse and it'll all be fine!"  
"Oh yeah! C'mon, do the curse! Do it!"  
She started placing down the items she would need in the center of the circle she had (thankfully) drawn while she was still sober and aware, then recited the curse over it. While she was placing the items, Duncan passed out, and she said, "Stupid Duncan. Always passing out," then passed out herself, but not before she recited the words and the curse took affect.

 

~~~~~Present Day~~~~~

 

"I never loved you!" Kim was shouting at the top of her lungs to Duncan, who was only right above her on the stairs.  
"I never loved you either!" Both of them were too angry to think logically about the situation or what they were saying. "I just put up a charade to impress you, just thought if I pretended to care even the slightest bit maybe you would get off my back! But noooo, you just /had/ to cling!"  
"I'm leaving! I can't stand the sound of your voice any longer!" She stormed out the door, then flew up to the mountain where they had kept the nukes before deciding they didn't need them. She sat down and started crying. She had been lying, she /did/ love him, she loved the sound of his voice, but she couldn't face him, couldn't face the truth anymore. She started thinking, thinking of times long ago, before the kids were even born, when both of them were still young and agile and daring. She thought of the time on the ship when he had said he loved her. He had been lying? All these years, just faking it? She couldn't bare it anymore. She flew over to her witchery forest and started looking through her book. "Something has to be here..."  
Meanwhile, Duncan was also reminiscing. He had also been lying, he loved her more than anything, but he just couldn't tell her. He sat down in his bed and looked over to hers. It was just as she had left it that morning, with the blankets still flung to the side, and the sheets still left with the imprint of her body in them. He started crying, and walked over to the front window to look for her, not knowing she was just outback. "Kim..." He remembered the ship as well, and all of their memories; the castle, New Camelot, all of it. He remembered how she nursed him back to health when he was injured. "Do you really not love me?" He now had trails of tears running down his face, and a few fell down to the floor. "I do love you." He closed his eyes, now so watery he couldn't see anything anyways. "I love you."

 

~~~~~Meanwhile...~~~~~

 

The Hats were having the very same problem. "Get out of my sight! I never want to see you again!" Ross was furious, yelling from the top of the sign where he was now hiding because... well, they didn't really know why, and they didn't really care, either, because anytime they saw one another it just resulted in another giant argument.  
"No problem mate, I was just about to! Seeing someone as ugly as you takes effort!" Once again, Smiffy's amazing burn (somehow) seemed to have no effect.  
"I'm leaving! You two idiots are so brain-dead that I can feel my brain cells dying just being /near/ you!" Trott stormed off, Smiffy following close behind. Once he was alone in his Thaumcraft room, he sighed. "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with us?" He picked up his Thauminomicon and opened it. "Don't let me down now..."  
Ross felt awful. He had been lying every second, he did want to see them again, he liked them, hell, he probably loved them. But now, it was too late, and it was all his fault.  
Alsmiffy was sitting alone in the machines room, listening to the electronic hum of the machines. "Why was I such an idiot?" He wasn't talking to anyone in particular, his machines if anything. "I've really fucked up this time," he said through his hands, which he was now holding his head in. Silently, he started weeping. He didn't know why, but he didn't care. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm just going to warn you, if you haven't figured out the big twist with Lalnable and Five yet, it's going to be revealed next chapter, so if you want to figure it out on your own and haven't yet, be warned!


	5. Mixing Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nano wakes up, and Kim and Trott work on curing themselves and their friends.

Nano woke up in a tent she didn't remember crawling into. She was used to this by now, coming to in places she didn't recognize. This was different, though - for a while now, she had been keeping Lalnable company in the Insane Asylum where he was locked up. She only woke up like this when she was with Lalnable, so the only way this would have been able to happen would be if...  
"Five? Are you awake yet?"  
"Yes Boss, coming!" She had known what to do if he was off for a while now, but it seemed nowadays that he never even woke up...  
"I'm feeling generous today. I'll let you decide where we should go." Nano panicked. She didn't know which way the asylum was, or what he saw, so she couldn't say with confidence a direction they could head in. As she struggled to come up with an answer, an idea struck her.  
"Well Boss, if we really want to go far away, what better way to go as far as possible than MystCraft? It'll let us go anywhere we want without leaving a trace!" Somewhere deep inside her, a long closed wound reopened as she remembered that her parents had left through a MystCraft book when she and Lalnable were just seven, never to come back.  
"Genius! Go make one and we can leave immediately!"  
"Of course Boss!" She walked off into the forest that was surrounding them on all sides, being sure to make sure she was blocked off from him entirely before she let her Specimen Five persona drop entirely. "Maybe one day..." she mumbled, referring to a day when his illness would pass, and she could see her brother again, not just this crazed psycho he had become. Last time, she was so close, but he lost it again before she could do anything. Now, though, she had given up all hope he would ever come back but for hopeful thinking. She found some sugarcane and got some leather, then decided not to leave him waiting. She came back with a Mystcraft book in her hand. "Here Boss!" She handed him the book.  
"Perfect! I'll set this up, you go make another one in case the one we find is trash." She quickly found some more materials and made another book, promptly bringing it back to him. "Ah, thank you! Now then, allow us to go through this portal, shall we?"  
She forced a giggle that she knew was 'Five's' and said, "Of course, boss!" She took his hand, and together, they went through the book.

 

~~~~~Meanwhile...~~~~~

 

What Kim found in her Witchery book shocked her. She looked around and gathered some Spanish Moss, some Brew of the Grotesque, and a couple Tongue of Dog. She brought some tag locks as well, just in case. She had to head out. She took her Witchery book and some chalk, then headed out, not bothering to tell Duncan where she was going.  
While she was walking over, she met Trott, walking in the opposite direction. They both inhaled and said simultaneously, "I have a confession to make." Both startled, they looked at each other. "You first, I guess then," Trott said awkwardly.  
She inhaled. "Duncan and I have been fighting for years and we just acted like there wasn't a problem when we saw you but now we're falling apart and I have a solution but I need your help!"  
Trott immediately said, "We've been fighting for years now and we didn't want to tell anyone because we thought it was just us but now I have a solution but I need your help!" They both stared at each other, out of breath from their mini-speeches.  
Kim spoke up first. "Are we working together then?" Trott nodded, and they got to work.

 

~~~~~

 

As Kim laid out the chalk circle, Trott was suddenly getting second thoughts. He didn't know anything about Witchery, and just off the name of it he knew it was something he didn't want to get involved in. Looking at Kim, the only thing familiar about her was the flux, which he happened to have studied in his Thaumonomicon. Other than that, though, she was completely strange and weird to him. Nothing about her was exactly friendly- she practiced what he could only consider Dark Magic, and smelled like... Witch, whatever that smelled like. That, and she was covered in what he knew was the pure concentration of evil. Part of him thought that just working with her and intertwining their magic like this could corrupt him. Then again, he told himself, this was to save his friends. He had to do this, even if it meant he was going to die from corruption. He started thinking of his entire life, and how he had met Kim and Duncan. Remembering, he said, "Hey, Kim."  
She looked over to him from the pillar she was setting up. "Yeah?"  
"You never did give us your radio number."  
Kim looked confused for a moment, then, remembering, whispered, "18.9.4. We're in the same section."  
Trott, still trying to make light of the situation, smiled and said, "I guess we're going to die then, aren't we?"  
"What?"  
"Well, you said you would guard your number, even if it meant you died. I guess that means we're going to die like this."  
"Yeah, I guess so. Your turn."  
Trott nodded and stepped forward, ready to take over. There was a ring of chalk on the floor, and four obsidian pillars around it. He took out four bottles and placed them on the pillars, breaking the bottles to reveal four hungry nodes. He had to work quickly now or else the nodes would eat up the entire setup. He placed a new  
Thaumometer in the center, right on the golden chalk, and four Vis crystals on the cardinal directions, between the pillars. He stepped back and gestured for Kim to finish up the ritual.  
She stepped forward and placed several items around the Thaumometer he wasn't familiar with, as well as five vials of blood. She crouched over it and started reciting words Trott didn't recognize as the hungry nodes finished the pillars. "Uh, Kim? A little faster, maybe?" She didn't respond, but instead kept reciting. The ground around her started getting eaten away until she was alone on a little island, surround by walls of certain death. "Kim? Hurry up, the nodes won't wait all day!" She kept talking in the mysterious language, and the nodes slowly closed in on her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Gasp* Cliffhanger! How dare I!


	6. Moving On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duncan decides it's time to move on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You want me to write about Kim and Trott, so why not raise giant question marks around the rest of Kim's family as well? (I may or may not not write about all five perspectives next chapter, we'll just have to see how it goes.)

Lalnable was pleased with his work on Five. He had intentionally cloned her with more flux so that she would have less free will. Sometimes, she would seem a bit off, he noticed, but she would be back at it soon enough that he didn't worry about it. He was surprised she had enough brainpower to think of using a Mystcraft book to leave. He was surprised it was taking so long to teleport to the other world. When it finally did happen, he felt all of the air in his lungs suddenly knocked out of him, or at least what felt like all of it. He could feel that he was still breathing, just very shallowly. He collapsed to a snow-covered ground, choking on nothing. He noticed his hands were purple, and very feminine, but he thought nothing of it, more concerned with actually breathing. He could feel that he wasn't getting as much oxygen, but for some reason, it didn't seem to affect him. He was still breathing normally, and everything seemed okay. Cautious, he stood up, nothing happening to him. He saw... himself. He was collapsed, breathing in and exhaling normally. He didn't look injured or physically affected at all, just shocked. That was when he noticed his purple hand again. "Five!" His voice sounded feminine, almost like Five's. But that couldn't be right...  
"Boss? What happened to you?" His doppelganger was looking around for someone, or something. "What happened to me?"  
"Five?" He was starting to catch on, but didn't want to believe it.  
"What happened, Boss? What's wrong with us?"  
Lalnable shook his head. "Everything, everything always has been wrong with us. We've never been right since the beginning. This isn't something being wrong with us, this is something being different about us."  
The Specimen Five possessed Lalnable looked at him - no, her - with fear. "Wh-what do you mean, Boss?"  
He looked at her as seriously as he could, despite being in the wrong sex. "I mean we've been wrong this entire time. Nothing has ever been right about us. We're just freaks, misfits. Didn't you realize so long ago? Nobody loves us. Nobody cares. We're just outlaws, extras they try to hide to make their nice perfect little world seem better. That's why my parents abandoned me. That's why my sister abandoned me. They all just hated me."  
Five looked different again, but didn't say anything.  
Maybe it was for the better.

 

~~~~~

 

Nano was astounded. Even though she knew her brother was in a totally different world, not experiencing anything she was, didn't know she was so close, she felt like he was just talking to her. Even though he talked about her like she wasn't there, saying 'My sister,' she felt like he was addressing her personally. Something about the way he told her, Five, whoever that they were unloved, not cared for, it felt like he was trying to tell her. She knew he wasn't, but she couldn't help but feel that way. She didn't know why, she just did. He kept talking, presumably about the area he saw, despite them not actually going through the book yet, and she decided she should probably listen to him in case he could actually hear her sometime in the future, though that was unlikely. She sat down regardless, and tried to find the asylum while she listened to him bicker on about nothing.

 

~~~~~

 

When Duncan was done crying, he stood up, ready to face Kim. "Kim? Kim, where are you?" He started walking all through the house, searching for her.  
But nobody came.  
He searched the entire house, even going into her Witchery hut and climbing up the trees. He called her name so that anyone for miles would be able to hear.  
But nobody came.  
He eventually reached the conclusion that she had either run away or killed herself, but he didn't want to face either of those options. He kept searching around the house to find her, not wanting to face the fact that she was gone, and that if he ever did see her again, she wouldn't be in good shape, and if she was, they would immediately fight again. Their relationship was ruined, but he didn't want to accept it. He couldn't accept it. No, they never had anything, she said it herself, she never loved him. Sure, he had said the same thing, but it wasn't true. He did love her, she was all he cared about. Sometimes he wished they could just start over, just wished he could meet her all over again, save her from the flux, wished things had gone differently. Sometimes he wished they hadn't gone through that book all those years ago, wished they were still with their kids. Sometimes he wished they weren't where they were now.  
But he couldn't. He didn't save her from the flux, they did go through the book, and they were where they were. And where they were happened to be sitting alone with a ruined relationship that had never even existed.  
He collapsed into his bed and started crying again. Kim was gone; he had to accept it. Nothing was ever going to be the same anymore. He had to deal with it. He sat up, tears still streaking down his face. He gathered all of her belongings, her ruby tools, all her Witchery ingredients, all of her chalk, even her books and pictures, all of it, and made a pile in the center of the house. She was gone, and he had to accept it.  
He was accepting it in his own way, saying goodbye to her alternatively.  
Tears still streaming down his face, he laid a torch on top of the pile of Kim's stuff. It caught, and he walked out, taking nothing with him. It was time for a fresh start. He walked out of the house and, tears still streaming down his face, walked away in a random direction, not caring where he went.  
If it was time for a new start, he was going to embrace it. He didn't look back, didn't look to the past. Just kept walking.


	7. Regrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone's perspectives are touched on a little bit, though most are having regrets they may later regret...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS is the reason I haven't been uploading! THIS ONE CHAPTER!!! I'm so sorry it took me forever, but it's finally over, just like this story. >:D

When Kim woke up from the trance-like state the chant put her in, she was on a narrow ledge, just big enough for the golden chalk, surrounded by a moat of destruction. The nodes had temporarily stopped, stabilized for a short time by the conclusion of the ritual. Acting quickly, she slid down off of the pillar she was on and started climbing up the wall. When she got out, she saw Trott, terrorized and relieved. "Kim!" He held out his arms and hugged her quickly. "How did you pull that off?" He was looking at her as though she was a ghost, which, to be fair, he probably thought she was.  
"Pull what off? Not dying? I don't know, but we should probably run so we can do it again. Those nodes are gonna reactivate really soon." Trott nodded and they ran off in a seemingly random direction, not towards either's base.  
While they were still running, Trott said, "Actually, I was talking about that slide thing. Aren't you forty something now? A lot of time has passed since your prime."  
She blushed and hoped he couldn't tell because they were running and her face was already red. "You'd be surprised how far not wanting to die gets you." She smiled, but wasn't sure if he could see because he didn't look over. "When are those nodes supposed to turn back on?"  
Trott shook his head. "I don't know, but we should probably keep running anyway. We left four hungry nodes back there in close vicinity. They're going to be trying to eat each other, and once they do, that whole area is going to implode on itself."  
"Which means?"  
He looked at her, deadly serious. "Keep running." They picked up the pace and started drifting over to PandaLabs, intending to loop around.  
After they ran in silence for a few minutes, Kim got bored and said, "So, how much will these nodes destroy?"  
"Well, we just left four hungry nodes fighting over control of each other. As soon as one gains a bit more power from the surrounding area and consumes another one, it's going to explode, setting off the other two, and the combined force will implode, sucking in all of the material around for miles and building a giant column right where we left them. I'd say there's going to be a crater to bedrock all the way from your base right up to ours."  
She was getting nervous now. "How wide will it be across?"  
He took a moment, then said, "It'll probably be a circle. Same width and length." She nodded, and they picked up the pace. They finally reached PandaLabs, or what was left of it, at least. Where the building used to stand lay a large pile of rubble and ash. There were still embers, so they knew the fire was pretty recent.  
"What happened?"  
"I don't know, why are you asking me?"  
She elbowed him and knelt down over the embers. Taking out her chalk, she drew a small circle around it, not very large but large enough that it contained the entire piece of the wall that was left, which was actually pretty small. Laying her hands out over it, she began the ritual.  
Trott saw her and walked over. "Kim? Kim, what are you doing?" But she was already somewhere else, consumed in thought, buried beneath her spells. She started chanting, and he couldn't tell what it was, it was in some mysterious language. He decided it would be best to wait for her to finish. When she did, she looked over to him with tears forming at the sides of her face.  
"There was a fire less than an hour ago. Duncan... Duncan probably died..." She looked down, and tears started to fall down her face and onto the chalk.  
"Kim... It's okay, Kim."  
Something inside her snapped. She remembered an old voice, one that hadn't comforted her for years, one that she had almost wanted to forget, one that she couldn't even tell was real or not anymore. /Kim, it's okay... Everything's okay.../ Duncan's voice rung through her head, giving her a headache every time she heard it. "No...no, no, no, no, no!" She stared up at him, looking bewildered. "It was you!" She started walking towards him, her confusion turning to anger. "YOU did this! Why? Why did you want him dead?"  
He watched as she stepped forward, pointing an accusing finger at him. "I didn't! I couldn't have! I was with you the entire time!"  
"Oh, I see! You set up your little 'friends' to do it! You said we were going to die! Of course... how could I be so blind? You meant /I/ was meant to die! You were going to kill us off so you could take this whole place as yours!" She made a sweeping motion across all of the land in sight. "But I didn't die, so you just went with it, and here we are! Your entire plan has unraveled. Maybe I should just... take care of you." She slowly drew out her sword and lightly brought it across his tough skin for emphasis.  
"Kim, look, you have the wrong idea! I don't know what made you think that we were the ones who destroyed your house, but we weren't! Look, what's that?" He pointed to a pile of ash sitting in the middle of the house.  
She walked over to it and dug through it, pulling out a red pick axe head, along with other tool parts. "My ruby tools... someone destroyed my ruby tools... on purpose!" When she turned to face him, she was consumed in rage, her flux writhing under her skin. "You tried to destroy all the evidence of us! You sicko!" She brought her sword up to his throat and smiled. "Now you come with me." He nodded as best he could without slitting his own throat and she grabbed his arm, pulling him forward. She led him to a small grotto with chalk on the floor and animals all around it. "Now," she said, taking her hand off his arm and instead binding his hands behind his back, "We get to the fun part." She walked in front of him, sword in hand, and brought it up to his throat again. "Who burnt down the house?"  
"I don't know, but it wasn't us, for Christ's sake!"  
She pushed the sword up closer, this time drawing a little blood, but not enough to be lethal. "I'm sorry, I don't think that's quite it. Let me ask you again: Who burnt down the house?"  
He decided it would probably be best to make up answers so that she didn't kill him, then talk about it later when she didn't have a knife to his throat. "R-Ross. He came over while we were doing the ritual."  
She brought the tip of her sword a bit back so that she wasn't puncturing the skin anymore, but was still hovering. "That's better. Where did he put Duncan?"  
Thinking quickly, he said, "He tied him up. Brought him out here to watch it burn. Plan was to kill him and bury him out here." Looking around, he saw a grave-ish lump on the ground and nodded to it. "Right there."  
Kim's expression turned distant, and her eyes turned watery for a second before she shook it off and continued the interrogation. "What was the lump?"  
He was sweating now, which was actually pretty common, since he was a walrus. But this wasn't of heat. "The one in the house?" She nodded and he continued, "H-he piled everything up to burn. Set it so that it would burn everything down." Now she brought the sword down and grabbed his cuffs.  
"I've heard enough. You're coming with me." She dragged him along to a dead and deserted island with a Witchery circle in the center. They stood there for a few minutes before she said, "This place used to be a lush place with lots of animals. Then I destroyed it, all the lush trees and grass dying at my touch."  
"What did you do with the animals?"  
She paused for a moment before saying, "I killed them all. That was a long time ago, maybe ten years. I was so young back then, so carefree." She shook her head, remembering. "I would always test out those crazy spells, pretend there wasn't a thing in the world I had to care about. We would kill so many things without remorse, without worry, thinking they were just there for us to kill. We once wiped out a whole mountain of Dwarves, thought nothing of it. We thought there would be no consequences."  
"Were there?"  
She loosened her grip on his hands, but something inside him told him not to run. She waited a few moments before saying, "It ended up being Simon's home, his family."  
"Oh. Did... did you at least spare some of them?"  
She shook her head. "We killed all of them, destroyed everything. We nuked it. Left nothing." Now she completely let go of his hands, but he still stayed. "That was how we learned that what we do has consequences, that nothing comes without a price. Now, you've been awfully patient with me." She grabbed his hands again, walking him towards the chalk. "I suppose I should reward you." She turned him around and pushed him down, helpless to get up. "Here, I'll make it quick."

 

~~~~~

 

Duncan was too old for this, and he knew it. He was trying to navigate the wild terrain like when he was young and agile, and while he was pulling it off just enough to look cool, it was hurting. A lot. He knew that as soon as he stopped and caught his breath, he would start to ache all over, maybe for days.  
That was why he didn't stop.  
There were tree roots and pebbles all over the ground, threatening to trip him but not quite. He remembered a time, so long ago, when maybe they would've, but they didn't even phase him now. It was the animals he was worried about. He knew that there were wild wolves in the forest, and that while they were mostly harmless, some would attack on sight. Not only that, but nightfall was approaching, and he knew his fighting skills weren't what they used to be. If he got caught out here when the monsters came out, he would be a goner for sure. He thought that maybe if he found a natural shape that was almost a shelter, maybe he could just add to it and make-do for the night. After that, he didn't know what he would do, but did he ever? When he was young, probably not even twenty, he used science to make himself awesome armor, and based his entire house around that. Hell, when he was younger, he had built a castle! He sighed and shook his head, starting the search for a natural shelter back up.  
Eventually, he found a small cave, that just went down under the surface and back up. He put a torch on the wall and lit it, covering up the walls with dirt. He wasn't able to light torches in his hand anymore, or else he would burn himself. It was pretty sad, really: he was only forty, and he couldn't hold a torch. His walls were thin and flimsy, so if anything walked into them, they would collapse into themselves and he would immediately be found. He kept in the center, far enough away from each wall that if one broke down, he would be able to flee out the other, but close enough that if there were monsters burning outside, he could hear them. As the night drew on, he grew colder and colder, finding himself slowly scooting closer to his torch. At one point, he heard a skeleton right outside his left wall, and tried to be as quiet as he could. He listened intently, and heard it walk away. He let out a sigh he didn't know he had been holding in, and curled up under his feeble torch, falling asleep.  
When he woke up, he saw weak morning light filtering in through the rough and hastily made dirt walls, casting a light orange, almost dream-like glow to his small cave. He strained his ears and heard a zombie burning in the distance. He might be old, but he still had his touch, or at least some of it. He blew out the torch, revealing that the natural light was, in fact, enough for him to see by. As soon as the flame died, though, the chilly morning air engulfed him, and he started shivering. Teeth clattering, he walked over to the right wall and knocked it down, revealing the forest as he had left it... and a burning zombie right in front of him. He jumped at the sudden shock and fell backwards. Any hint of how cold it was was immediately forgotten, replaced by panicked thoughts and ideas of how to escape. Just as he started searching around for a rock, the flames consumed the zombie and it fell into a pile of ash at the entrance to the cave. "Well I guess that's handled then..." He stood up and dusted himself off, hesitantly peeking around the corner of the wall. After seeing that there were no more monsters around, he ran back in and grabbed the torch, quickly returning to the woods and knocking down the other wall from the outside. It was actually a lot more flimsy than he thought it was, taking only a light tap to knock down, whereas he was expecting it to at least take a little bit of effort. After collapsing both walls, he took his single torch and set off, determined to find a place he could start building in before the sun set. He spent all day wandering, staying close to a stream he found around halfway through the day. He eventually stumbled upon a decently flat area that didn't have too many obstructions in it. There was a cave nearby, and he determined he could probably have it cleared out in a day and have enough to live in by around five days after that. All in all, if he was assuming he was working all day, he would be living in the cave for five or six nights, which he didn't mind, considering he was surrounded by food and water wasn't that far away, so it wasn't like he would be starving to death in a cave. As he was boarding up a spot in the cave, his mind wandered to PandaLabs and Kim. What if she hadn't actually run off? What if she was going to return to find nothing but a smoldering heap of charcoal? /No, don't think like that! Don't think ABOUT that!/ He shook his head to clear out all of those dumb thoughts. Why would Kim leave if she wasn't leaving for good? They had been growing so far apart, fighting at every turn, and he found it hard to remember a time when they didn't, when they actually got along, despite having so many years of good memories. He tried to ignore it and keep working on his make-shift shelter, but no matter what he did, his thoughts drifted back to the last things he had heard Kim say: /"I'm leaving! I can't stand the sound of your voice any longer!"/ Every word stung like needles, giving him a giant headache. He collapsed, pain, fear, sadness, anger, and regret closing in around his neck and choking him. "Kim..." Tears started streaming down his face, and he closed his eyes, fully embracing the doubtful thoughts and the memories threatening to overpower him. "I've made such a mistake..." He closed his eyes, which were now spewing out twin Niagara Falls. "Kim!" He started yelling her name, and leapt up towards the woods again. His feet were pounding on the ground at such a rapid rate that he didn't even know where they were anymore, he didn't know anything other than her name. "Kim, I'm coming home!" He couldn't remember anything of what had just happened, just that if he stopped, he probably wouldn't be able to move again, overcome by grief and sadness. He didn't even know what time it was anymore; day and night were irrelevant and indistinguishable. He couldn't see anything, either, so it was a miracle he could get around at all. That was why he didn't see the creeper that was headed straight towards him, and why he ran into it headfirst.

 

~~~~~

 

Smiffy decided he had had enough of this hiding. If Hat Corp wasn't getting along anymore, then they shouldn't be together anymore. They couldn't just sit around and expect everything to fix itself, because it wasn't going to. If he had to forcefully drag Ross and Trott into the same room, then so be it. He wasn't going to put up with this anymore. He opened his door and snuck out. He figured that if he could sneak up on them without being heard, maybe he could slip up behind them, seeing as they probably didn't want much to do with actually talking. He thought about it, and decided he would go get Ross first. As he was slipping up the hall towards Ross' room, Ross himself turned a corner right into him. Bracing for a huge fight, Smiffy said, "Oh, hey Ross." He leaned up against the wall in an effort to look cool and nonchalant. Ross just looked at him, clearly not fooled.  
"Oi, Smiffy. I was just looking for you." His voice sounded hollow, like they were paper thin and covered up some deep ravine where the bottom wasn't visible. Ignoring Ross's suspicious behavior, he continued on.  
"Oh, me too." He pretended that it wasn't a big deal, despite sweating profusely under his suit.  
"Oh were you now?" There was very clearly something wrong, and Smiffy was feeling worse and worse about it every moment.  
"Yeah, I was. I wanted to talk." His voice was shaking now.  
"Go ahead then, mate." His voice seemed slightly less shallow, but he still wasn't very warm.  
"Well, I was thinking we, uh, make up?" It didn't sound quite as good out loud, but he was doing what he could.  
Ross sighed and looked up at him, his face suddenly looking tired. "Does that mean... we're not at war anymore?"  
Smiffy laughed and hugged him. "I guess so, mate. I guess so."  
"Wait a minute. Where's Trott?" Ross broke the hug and the happy silence, slicing through their enjoyment like butter.  
"I'm not sure. I haven't seen him since we fought." Now a heavy feeling of dread filled the air, weighing them down. All traces of happiness forgotten, he suggested, "Is it possible he's in his room?"  
Ross's expression turned distant, deep in thought as he said, "The bloke always did like his magic." He turned his gaze back to Smiffy. "Should we go check his room?"  
"Sounds like a plan." They ran off down the hallway, barely stopping to throw open the door into Trott's Thaumcraft room. In it they found... nothing. His collection of hungry nodes he so proudly displayed were gone, as were his Thaumonomicon and wand, along with some of those weird crystals he collected, not to mention Trott himself.  
"Where the bloody hell did he get off to this time?" Ross threw up his arms in frustration, storming in and sitting down on a stool. "He's always running off with all his little magic gear. He never even tells us, just runs! Who does he think he is?"  
"Ross, calm down! We're not at war anymore, remember?"  
He inhaled deeply. When he spoke, his voice was quivering. "I-I'm sorry. It's just... I haven't been myself lately, it always feels like... like someone - some/thing/ - has possessed me, like I'm not controlling my body. I mean, I am, it's just, it's feels like I'm not. Does that make any sense?"  
Smiffy nodded and sat down beside him. "I've... actually been feeling the same way." He paused, contemplating, before saying, "Do you think Trott was feeling the same way?"  
"Maybe." After a second, his eyes widened and he looked over to Smiffy. "Do you think...maybe...he tried to go out and do something about it? Something drastic?"  
Smiffy grew concerned, and they both bolted up to find any evidence of where he left from and where he went to. They checked all of the windows, which were still locked, all of the small side exits and other weird doors, which were also still locked, as well as anywhere he might have gone to inside the house, though they found no trace of him inside. Eventually they came to the conclusion that all of the exits were locked, except for one: the Hat Shack front entrance.  
"Does that mean he left out the front door and neither one of us knew a thing?" Smiffy's attitude was somewhere between disappointment and anger, a strange mix between the two.  
"I s'pose so." Ross didn't seem to catch the hint in Smiffy's voice, shrugging off the question like no big deal. "Should we head after him?"  
"Should we? Mate, he just ran off into the wilderness on his own with nothing but a book and some all-consuming puffs off light! If we don't head after him, there's no way he's going to make it!"  
Ross nodded, and they headed out on the search for Trott. Just then, however, there was a blinding flash of light and they were both sucked into a large vortex, pulled away from their base and immediately knocked unconscious, their lives resting within a thin sliver of a chance.

 

~~~~~

 

Lalnable was still getting used to how short his breaths were when he realized this entire world was useless. It was nothing but snowy waste, and nothing good could come out of it. Even if he did find some way to harvest any materials in this barren wasteland, the rest of the world would still be unused, a crusty shell of ice and caked earth. There was no way around it; they had to get out of there as soon as possible. The only way to do so was to take another Mystcraft book out, and to do that, they had to get the materials. "Five!" His voice didn't sound quite as threatening now, but he managed to pull off an intimidating tone.  
"Yes, boss?"  
"Make another book. This world is a dump, and I don't want to stay here any longer than I have to."  
"Of course, boss!" She quickly shuffled off to make a book, leaving Lalnable alone.  
He sat down, looking around him and reminiscing on his life. He could remember when he first left home, and how he had worked at YogLabs as a kid, taking his experience in cloning to later make Specimen Five. He started thinking about where he was now, sitting in a frozen wasteland with a cloned slave working on getting him out. This wasn't where he had imagined himself thirteen years ago; thirteen years ago, though, he still thought his family loved him, so that wasn't exactly a reliable source. Back then, he didn't have any plans on what he would do. Even now, he didn't have any idea what he wanted to do once they got to the new world. He decided it would be best to wander for a few days, assuming his body was back to normal when they went through the book again. If it didn't, they were in for trouble, because that would mean a permanent body swap, and that wouldn't exactly be satisfactory. If that did happen, he would have to kill Five and repossess his body, and then he wouldn't have a servant. If he didn't have a servant, he would be alone, and that wouldn't be any good at all.  
Soon Five came back with the book, and placed it down in front of him. "Here you go boss!"  
"Are you ready to go through?"  
"Yes, boss!" With that, they went through the portal, leaving nothing but a book behind them.  
When they landed on the other side, Lalnable's lungs immediately filled with air, and for the first time in about half an hour, he got a full breath of air. He quickly realized that it was, indeed, his own lungs filling with air, and that his body was back to him. Looking down, however, he saw that he was a little bit fluxed as well, meaning that when they transferred, some of her flux had been transferred into him when their atoms were disassembled and re-formed. He flexed his hands, not feeling any different than normal, other than feeling the oxygen flowing freely through his lungs again. Looking over, he saw Five, gasping for breath after breathing through his larger lungs. "Five, examine the area and find out where we are. We're going to wander for a few days before we make our base, get a good feel for where we are."  
"Yes boss!" She jumped up and ran off in a random direction, getting to work on finding their location. Looking around, he saw that they were in a strange red biome, with lots of sandstone and tall mountains. They were in a small dip, with little to no exits other than the top. A waterfall gently trickled down one side, next to a group of small cacti. Five was looking at a pool of water on the other side, squatting down to examine what he assumed was a hole in the side of the wall. A small patch of grass surrounded the waterfall, the only signs of life in the entire hole. He decided he should probably get to a good place to look around and see the rest of the world from. If his suspicions were correct, they were actually pretty high up, just surrounded by mountains. He found a relatively reasonable area to climb, and got to work. Some areas were flat enough that he could actually walk, but for the most part, he had to scale up with his hands, making him realize just how weak he had gotten. He was still pretty strong; he wasn't struggling at all, just straining himself. Then again, the wall was almost vertical, with very few and poor handholds. Considering how he was doing, he was pretty strong, just not what he used to be. When he reached the top, he looked down and saw that they were, in fact, quite high up. He could see a lot of land from where he was, including a river cutting across the ground in front of the mountain, and a desert stretching out on the other side. It looked like everything on this side of the river was just mountains, so he decided they had better head out and try to find something on the other side of the desert. He skillfully slid down the mountainside again, Five walking up to him when he reached the bottom.  
"I found out where we are! The current dimension, 'Dimension Zero', is actually separated from the other worlds. It looks like around ten or fifteen years ago, a connection between this world and Age 18 failed, forever breaking the bond and nullifying any existing links. In order to access one from the other, a third world has to be used, therefore skipping around the broken link. Also, I've done a life scan, and there are other humans in this world. There are approximately five."

 

~~~~~

 

Nano was having trouble processing what just happened. Not five minutes ago, Lalnable had been rambling on about what she was supposed to do, but she wasn't listening anymore. She had stopped listening to what he was saying when she realized that he would never hear or see her again, that he was off in his own world, trapped in theirs by nothing but his body. He was there, but he wasn't. She could speak to him, but he wasn't listening. He wasn't hearing her. He was hearing someone else saying something different, seeing and comprehending someone else. She didn't listen because even if she did, it wouldn't matter. He was gone. He was past saving. Engulfed by... himself. Her brother was destroyed by his own mind, set off into insanity because of her actions. When she was listening, it was all the same: His entire family had abandoned him, they all hated him, he was an outcast, hated everyone else in return. This time, though, her name caught her attention.  
"Nano." His voice was clear and purposeful, very intentionally talking to her.  
"Lalnable?" She had been sitting down facing away from him, but now scrambled to her feet to face him.  
He gave a deep chuckle, and when he looked back at her, his expression was of pure entertainment, as though he thought she was just joking. "You're kidding, right?" Her face must have revealed how confused she was because his face suddenly turned to one of devilish anticipation. "Oh, I look forward to introducing myself, then. I do like to make quite the entrance." He started walking towards her swiftly, and she started walking backwards to get away, tripping on a pebble at the last second and falling down on her back. A cat-like grin spread across his lips as he continued to stride towards her. She started frantically crawling away, not wanting to waste the time to turn around or stand up, just working her way away, or at least pretending she was. Within a matter of seconds he had caught up to her, and swiftly grabbed her by her throat and held her up, suffocating her while simultaneously drawing back his fist to punch her. She had no doubts that as soon as he hit her, a combination of lack of air and such a hard blow would definitely knock her out almost instantaneously. But he didn't punch her. She didn't pass out. Instead, he lowered her just enough that she could put her tip-toes on the ground but that he still had a firm enough grip that if she so much as moved, he could kill her in a second.  
"This isn't right... You! Are we still in the old dimension?" She nodded as best she could, scared of what would happen once he finally got around to knocking her out cold. "That means those old wards might still come get us... That would do no good, now would it?" She hesitated, then nodded again after he silently prompted her by tightening his grip on her throat. "Now then, we'll just have to take this book, I suppose..." Still holding on to her neck, he teleported through the MystCraft book, dragging her with him.  
When she came to, she was cold, but she could breathe, so that was better. She was in the middle of some kind of building, and it didn't take long for two guys to gather around her and her once-brother, laying beside her, not quite woken up yet. One had bright blonde hair and a bright green T-Shirt with a dark swirl on it. The other was in a dark hoodie, his black hair swooping down over a pair of deep blue eyes. She couldn't really tell if the first one was actually looking at them or past to what seemed to be a potted plant. When she looked back, the second noticed that she was awake. "Martyn, she's awake!"  
The first one, 'Martyn', shifted his gaze from the plant to her and said, "Oh, you are! Here, let us help you up." He extended a hand to her, and she graciously took it, thinking to herself that it was one step closer to being as far away from crazed Lalnable as possible. "I'm Martyn, and this is Toby." The other man waved, giving a small awkward smile before they both looked to her for her response.  
"Oh, uh, I'm Nano, and this is my brother, Lalnable." She held out an arm towards the still unconscious lump on the floor. Now she added on quietly, "But something's wrong. See, I've been taking care of him for years, pretty much ever since we were kids and our parents left us. He's been... slowly slipping into his own world, until eventually, he-" She had to pause to hold back tears, turning her head down, before continuing, "Eventually, he completely lost it. He doesn't talk anymore, he can't hear me, he's in his own world. But, just now, he... he spoke to me..." She looked up to meet their gazes, her eyes watering and her voice quivering. "But it wasn't him. He said he was going to make a grand entrance, then he tried to choke me." She was crying now, her breathing so choppy that she was having difficulty speaking.  
"I don't know what's going on, but we have to get out of here. Before he wakes up." Martyn grabbed Nano's wrist and started trying to lead her through the corridor, but she remained planted where she was.  
"No." She wiped the tears from her eyes and stood firmly in place. "We can't just leave him here! Should he actually wake up, he's going to be alone in this place. If he gets lost, we might never be able to find him!" Martyn and Toby glanced at each other. The entire building was comprised of ten floors of identical corridors moving through identical doors. If the power went out, it would probably be considered a real-life horror game, considering that they kept almost all of the doors locked, nothing but empty space connecting to more doors behind them. For the most part, the entire building was just a giant facade, a trick to keep intruders out of where they shouldn't be. It had never occurred to them that it may actually hurt possible allies.  
"Oh, well, if you want, we could open up one of the empty rooms and you could stay in there with him," Toby offered. He and Martyn both knew that they didn't want a possible crazed psychopath sitting in one of their main rooms, just waiting to wake up. He didn't want to just leave them out here, so it was the best he could do without directly endangering anyone.  
Nano nodded, understanding perfectly. She picked up her brother as best she could, carrying him over to the door that they indicated, walking in when they unlocked it. She was surprised to find that the entire wall was just empty in the center, all of the doors leading into the same empty space. She laid Lalnable down in the center of the room and knelt down next to him, nodding to them that everything was taken care of. As he was closing the door, Martyn remembered something and said, "Oh, by the way, take this." He tossed an unlit candle into the room. "It gets kind of dark in there when all the doors are closed."  
She picked up the candle and took a look at it. It was a natural looking green, pale but still vibrant. "Thanks." She set it down next to Lalnable as he closed the door. He was right; as soon as the door was closed, all light in the room was immediately drained from the room. Fumbling in her pocket for a flint and steel, she listened to their footsteps slowly fade through the long corridors. When she finally found it, she held the two pieces on either side of the wick and struck them together, causing a spark that lit the thin thread. A yellow light was suddenly cast around the room, creating an eerie ambiance. She listened as the last faint footsteps slowly vanished. Suddenly, Lalnable burst upright and smiled.  
"I never did make my grand entrance, did I?" He grabbed her throat and held her up, slowly strangling all of the life out of her. As her vision went from normal to red to slowly fading to black, she heard him say, "I'm Livid, by the way. Am I real enough yet?" That was the last thing she heard before everything went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SO SORRY I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT TOBY


End file.
